Sunday, April 09, 2006

Jordanian Press Association will punish any journalist who visits Israel

The Jordanian Press Association said on Saturday that it will punish any journalist who visits Israel. The group had previously decided to ban normalization of relations with Israel. Responding to reports that a group of Jordanian journalists was going to participate in a seminar at Israel’s Haifa University, the organization released a statement saying that, “The JPA council will inflict deterrent punishment on journalists who violate its decision that bans any form of normalization [with Israel].” Both the JPA and the Arab Press Association have enacted rules that "prohibit all forms of normalization with the Zionist entity.

The same happened a few years ago, and I'm confident that this is a recurrent policy in the JPA.read here to find out why!

Jordan TimesTuesday, November 2, 1999A number of journalists from the Jordan Press Association's general assembly are collecting signatures to pressure the JPA council to abide by its recent decision expelling three members who visited Israel in September, one journalist said.

“Around 150 general assembly members have signed this petition because they believe that the JPA council will change their minds and not follow through with it since they are being pressured to [do that],” said the journalist who preferred anonymity.

The journalist said that “journalists from every paper” are working to reach 200 signatures by this morning, ahead of the council's weekly meeting.

The JPA had on Oct. 19 announced that it would abide by the JPA disciplinary committee's recommendation to expel Al Ra'i columnist Sultan Hattab, Jordan Times Chief Editor Abdullah Hasanat and Al Dustour columnist Jihad Momani for travelling to Israel in early September.

The action was prompted by a complaint from head of the JPA's public freedom's committee, Nayef Mahasneh, against the three accusing them of violating the association's bylaws.

JPA bylaws, and 12 other professional associations in Jordan forbid their members, estimated at 100,000, from “normalising” relations with Israel and Israelis.

In their statement, the journalists said “We (Jordanian journalists and writers) stress that normalisation by any JPA member with the Zionist enemy is not just refused on national, regional and moral grounds, but is a clear affront to the general assembly's decision and a violation of the opinion of the majority.”

“We view a meeting with any Israeli official whose hands are stained with Palestinian and Arab blood is normalisation given freely... [which is] unacceptable and unjustifiable,”

it said.

The three journalists have protested the decision saying it impinges on their personal freedom, maintaining that the week-long visit was upon an invitation of the Haifa University Centre for Arab Jewish Studies, and that it was meant to get them better acquainted with the political and academic conditions in which Arab-Israelis work.